Search the Dictionary

Want of profit; unprofitableness. [Obs.] Wyclif.

Profitless. [R.] Shak.

Unproductive; fruitless; unprofitable; empty. Brilliant but barren reveries. Prescott. Some schemes will appear barren of hints and matter. Swift.

Unavailing; unprofitable; useless; without advantage or success. Chaucer. I'll follow him no more with bootless prayers. Shak. -- Boot"less*ly, adv. -- Boot"less*ness, n.

us thought; -- usually followed by over or on; as, to brood over misfortunes. Brooding on unprofitable gold. Dryden. Brooding over all these matters, the mother felt like one who has evoked a spirit. Hawthorne. When with downcast eyes we muse and brood. Tennyson.

Unproductive; bringing no gain; unprofitable; as, dead capital; dead stock in trade.

Unprofitable. [Obs.]

s on the labors of others; a lazy, idle fellow; a sluggard. By living as a drone,to be an unprofitable and unworthy member of so noble and learned a society. Burton.

ducks and drakes, with property, to throw it away heedlessly or squander it foolishly and unprofitably. -- Lame duck. See under Lame.

oint or spirit; monotonous; as, a flat speech or composition. How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world. Shak.

Productive of no advantage or good effect; vain; idle; useless; unprofitable; as, a fruitless attempt; a fruitless controversy. They in mutual accusation spent The fruitless hours. Milton.

Vain; useless; unprofitable. [Obs.] South.

Vain; ineffectual; useless; unprofitable; null; voil; nugatory; of no effect. "Our frustrate search." Shak.

Not producing gain; unprofitable. Hammond. -- Gain"less/ness, n.

Of no account; useless; vain; trifling; unprofitable; thoughtless; silly; barren. "Deserts idle." Shak. Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. Matt. xii. 36. Down their idle weapons dropped. Milton. This idle story became important. Macaulay.

Unprofitable. [Obs.]

Infertile; barren; unprofitable; unproductive. [Obs.] Glanvill.

Not producing fruit; unfruitful; unprofitable. [R.] T. Adams.

Useless; unprofitable. [Obs.] Bacon.

Uselessness; the quality of being unprofitable; unprofitableness; as, the inutility of vain speculations and visionary projects.